... a lighthouse at the mouth of the New Basin Canal on Lake Pontchartrain dates back to 1837. That original structure was replaced in 1854 and then a third... a two story square, white frame structure with a third story, wooden boxed light tower containing fifth order illumination, was constructed in 1890. In 1915 a hurricane destroyed the 1869 protective bulkhead. In 1950 the canal was filled in, leaving the lighthouse at the end of what is ostensibly, a very short jetty. Between 1966 and 1984 plans were drawn up for a new bulkhead and dock and the building was renovated with new siding and windows and subsequently entered, in 1985, into the National Register of Historic Places. In 2002, the US Coast Guard abandoned the light and moved its station to Bucktown.

Three years later, in 2005... Hurricanes Katrina and Rita delivered a one, two punch that absolutely destroyed the place. In 2006, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation acquired a USCG lease and began a salvage and restoration project of what remained of the building. This new, New Canal Lighthouse, containing some ot the previous facilities' wood and now sitting on top of a set of tall stilts... opened in 2013 as a museum and education center. This is how it appears on the rather cold and blustery morning of December 31, 2014.